Friday, August 24, 2007

In the Navy!

Anyhoo, I just can’t get past the fact that Nowak is still an officer in the Navy.

My Grandfather’s Navy had some pretty strict rules regarding the conduct of officers…and this scandal alone, even without a conviction, should have fucked Nowak’s career up.

Yet she stands in court today asking to have her ankle monitoring devise removed because it irritates her skin and (this is the part that made my afro hurt) it rubs against her Navy uniform.

Her Navy uniform…Lawd, have mercy!

The military is kicking out honorably serving gays and lesbians for serving honorably and being gay or lesbian…but Lisa Nowak gets to sport her Navy uniform and cash her Navy paycheck despite being the definition of conduct unbecoming.

Nice.

Someone needs to design one of those web counter things to monitor how long it takes the Navy to not ask but tell Ms. Nowak to hit the road.

12 comments:

As a former soldier who has friends who were kicked out of the military before DADT, and others afraid to take plum assignments (White House Communications) after DADT because "they might find out", this infuriates me. Conduct unbecoming indeed! This is just shameful, I can't believe the Navy would allow this women to represent them as an officer, while the desparately needed translators for Arabic and Farsi are given the proverbial combat boot to the ass. Shameful.

Im pondering whether its her craziness or her foulness that makes her eligible for dissmissal. I feel like she has a heap of each but not enough of either to leave our armed forces. That uniform bit was GENIUS - she may as well have said "keeping me on house arrest is letting the terrorists win" or "these colors don't run".

This whole story is just too dyke drama to be straight, but here's my take. The Uniformed Code of Military Justice might have allowed for a swifter disposition of the case, but this is in the hands of local authorities. Ms. Nowak is entitled to her day in court - she's not been convicted of any crime, and until she is, the military has no grounds to dismiss her. Her career is over--whether she is convicted or not, the taint will stick. She's been yanked from the astronaut program. Her marriage is destroyed. Her children's lives will never be the same. She's probably having a really hard time getting up in the morning. All in the name of obsession. I'd have thought psychological screening might have caught such a predisposition. It's pretty sad. And, a waste of a lot of our tax dollars for specialized training.

As Hahn said, sometimes local authorities having jurisdiction prevents the military from pursuing the charges as they would normally. Rest assured that after her conviction she'll be shown the door, and as swiftly as possible. The problem facing gays is that the UCMJ is the code they're violating, as unjust and ridiculous as it is. The code, sadly, ties the military's hands until the civilian court acts:(

Tagging onto Hahn and Mike, I spent 10 years in the Navy. They're right about the whole UCMJ situation. It's like a double jeopardy issue. If the civilian courts don't met out appropriate justice, her commanding officer can recommend her for courts-martial, where she will likely be torn to shreds.

But, then again, the comments pertaining to DADT and contradictions have a point, too!

After my 10 years, I was basically fed up. Having finally reached a level of management where I thought I could rise above the crap, it only appeared that I just gained a new, more defined perspective of the B.S. and constant contradictions. I had seen perfectly good hard working patriotic servicemembers get railroaded into the ground by supervisors who just plain didn't like them and I have seen absolute dirtbags gain officer commissioning programs and a free ticket through college because they knew how to schmooze the right people. Of course, this happens in the "real world", too. I'm not naive to that! It's just that the difference is one is obligated to a contract in the Armed Forces, whereas there is freedom to leave McCorporate, Inc. if the shit gets too deep!